


Lance's Blues

by prinzcake



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Injury Recovery, M/M, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 02:06:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10709919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prinzcake/pseuds/prinzcake
Summary: I am not in the waterBut I cannot stay afloatThe air fills my chestBut I cannot breatheThe ground is stillBut I cannot stop shakingI try to take a stepBut I can go no further





	Lance's Blues

Lance sat down heavily on the sofa. The command room was empty. The team had just finished discussing the battle they had just finished over Kkotaka, a planet home to a 4-armed alien race. Everyone had either gone to have refreshments (Hunk) or rest in their room individually.

“..nce.”

He stared at the helmet in his hand. The faint scuff marks beneath his fingers had become more familiar to him recently then some things he had known all this life.

“Lance!”

Lance blinked and looked up. Keith stood in front of him, already cleaned up from the recent battle. Of course, Keith was always fast and efficient.

“What, Keith.” Lance knew he sounded irritable, but he didn’t really feel up to talking at the moment. Keith didn’t get annoyed like he expected, but looked at Lance closely.

“Aren’t you going to shower yet? It’s going to stink the longer you stay in it.”

Somehow, his tone sounded more concerned then antagonizing. Was Keith actually worried? Lance had to struggle a little not to let his face crumple.

“Yea, I’ll go soon.” Lance said as casually as he could, but he must have done it wrong, because Keith’s eyebrows shifted together slightly. The red pilot didn’t prod him any further, however; just nodded and left. Lance missed the backward glance that was thrown his way just before the doors closed.

He sighed. He didn’t know why he felt so down. Everything was going fine, the team was great, Shiro was still around, they had news of Matt being freed, they had a brand new pet cow, even Keith was less insufferable then usual.

He shook his head. He must be tired from the battle. That was it. He pushed all thoughts out of his head and headed to the shower.

\--------

The water was cool, soothing. This was his favorite part of the ship, aside from his bed. He _would_ nominate the pool to a higher position, if he could actually _get_ into it. He should really ask Coran about it one day.

Lance spent a longer time then usual under the spray. He was reluctant to get out, but he eventually turned off the shower and dried off.

Lance frowned as he pulled on his clothes. His thoughts had been muted while he was in the shower, but now he could feel a slight storm of grey clouds gathering back in his head. On the way to the armory, he continued to mull over why he was feeling so blue. 

_Well, I_ am _the blue paladin,_ he joked to himself internally. He returned the suit to the pod and left the room.

A voice called to him as he walked out. “Lance!” 

Lance turned around, brightening. Was it -

“Oh, hey, Hunk!” Lance wasn’t sure who he had been hoping for but he was sure he should be pretty happy seeing his best friend, so he put on bright smile. “Finished cooking up new foods?” Hunk had probably made up 101 new recipes since coming to space.

The yellow paladin grinned at him. 

“Yes, actually! I just made some new cookies! Want to come and try it?”

Lance smiled. Hunk was awesome. He _was_ hungry. He’d feel better once he ate. Following his friend to the kitchen, he found a literal mountain of honey colored biscuits with green bits.

The cookie was _delicious_ , and he told Hunk so _._

“Seriously, this is great!” Lance exclaimed. It was crispy but the little bits of sweet candy melted in his mouth and reminded him of the cookies his mother baked. He would engage with his sisters in what they called the Food Wars - no snack was safe under any jurisdiction until it had already entered the person’s stomach. Lance learned that the hard way after he lost custody of a bacon roll halfway to his mouth.

He continued to nibble on his biscuit, thinking about how his little brother would make puppy eyes at him until he handed over the best parts of cakes. 

“…Kkotakan plants maybe. What do you think?” Hunk said.

“What?” Lance jerked back to reality. “Cookie plants?”

His friend paused. “No, I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as cookie plants. Or maybe there is. Boy, I’d love to have some around.”

Silence. 

“Lance? Are you okay?”

Lance looked at Hunk in surprise. He wasn’t acting any different, he would know - so why was his friend making a worried face at him?

“I’m good, buddy!” Lance laughed. “I’m just sleepy, are you sure your cookies don’t have any sleeping plants in there?” 

Hunk pulled a face of horror. “Seriously?! I don’t think so, but it could be…maybe there are some side effects that we don’t know of -”

“Hunk, I’m joking.”

“Ohh. Hah. Good one.”

After chatting awhile more, Lance helped Hunk bag up the rest of the cookies. He waved good night to Hunk and entered his room, the door sliding close with a soft hiss behind him. 

It was suddenly too quiet. 

The light had automatically flickered on the moment he came in, but somehow it just made the room look more colorless. Lance didn’t understand why he was  seeing it so differently. The room looked exactly the same as it always had, and he always went inside looking forward to a nice nap. 

Now it just looked alien. Different from his Earth home, messy and chaotic. He thought about his house. Nothing that was not permanently stuck to the floor would ever be in the same spot as the day before. New things ended up in his room all the time and he would have a panic attack if he needed to find something because it was likely there was a minimum one year searching date. 

And whenever he turned around, there was always someone there.

Lance felt a bout of restlessness overtake him. He blamed it on the cookies. He paced around the room once and sat on the bed, trying to feel sleepy. The silence seemed to be getting louder and his foot tapped impatiently, but where was there to go? The ship was way too haunted (he hadn’t forgotten) for a solo exploration and he didn’t want to disturb Hunk or Pidge; Hunk would be snoring by now and Pidge would probably be annoyed. He couldn’t possibly go to Shiro and what on earth would he say to Keith? 

He imagined any one of his team members walking in to talk to him right then  and the thought of it made him feel so hopeful that when he flicked his eyes towards the door and it stayed shut he felt like yelling.

Lance leapt up. He had to get out of here, anywhere but this damn room. 

\--------

Lance blindly headed down the dark corridor, unconsciously taking longer and faster strides. He slowed down when he saw a faint light around the corner.

He had ended up at the shower, where the light was always on even when it was the designated “night-time”. A bout of near-hysteric laughter bubbled up in his throat when he thought of the fact they had to have a scheduled day-night sequence because there was no such thing as waking up to a bright sunny day or falling asleep to a fading sunset. No such thing as waking up and feeling lazy to a rainy morning and hearing it tap merrily against the window. There wasn’t even windows.

Lance was going crazy thinking about it.

He entered the cubicle before he was even aware of moving.

His hand darted to the switch and put the shower on full blast. He was still fully dressed and he could feel the water drenching his clothes and sticking to his skin, but he didn’t care. He sat down with his head on his knees, arms encircling so he could block out as much light as possible, and closed his eyes.

The steady stream of water drumming against his hair and clothes took over his senses and he paused his breathing to hear it unbroken as long as he could. He let out a long sigh, tension draining out of his body.

It felt so good.

If he concentrated, or lost focus hard enough, he could just imagine he was back at home, taking a shower with a babble of voices just behind the door. His brother would be pestering him to hurry up so he could go number two, and his mother would be loudly declaring to his sister that her cooking was just not  _en el punto._

Lance felt his mouth twist into a small smile.

\--------

 

He wasn’t sure how long he stayed in that position, but he was just starting to feel blissfully peaceful when he felt the shower turn off and heard an indignant voice behind him. _Oh, come on,_ he thought, _just a few minutes more, couldn’t_ -

_Wait._

That didn’t sound like his brother. 

“What are you doing? Get up!”

It all came back to him.

 Lance felt his heart drop. He’d just gone and done something stupid. A hand shook his shoulder impatiently. Lance shifted and winced as his limbs creaked. He got up stiffly, squinting as he tried to adjust to the bright light. He wobbled as he stood on the slippery floor, feeling light-headed. His arm reached out to the wall for support, but instead a pair of hands grabbed his shoulder and guided him around to face its owner. 

“Lance?” A pale face frowned at him quizzically, eyebrows knitted together.

It was Keith. Of all people, it had to be Keith discovering him doing something lame and dumb and weird. His head felt heavy and he couldn’t seem to talk, so he just stood there in a daze with his eyes cast down. Keith said something and put his palm on Lance’s face. It felt cooling in a good kind of way, so he leaned into it. Keith frowned ever more fiercely and said something, but he couldn’t really hear it. He just wanted to lie down. 

Come to think of it, the shower must have helped, because he felt so sleepy. He could definitely go to bed right now.

Keith seemed to be talking more intently to him now, but all he could think about was how nice the coolness on his cheek felt. Lance leaned more into Keith’s fingers and felt himself falling all the way into the darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to friends from tumblr! I am currently working on the next chapter so please stay tuned! I also have another work ongoing called Socks and Mittens so if you're interested just head over and check it out o/ Updates may not be very often but I'll do my best to finish so thank you for your patience!
> 
> Personal note: Thank you for reading! I identify foremost as an artist and not a writer; this is just a platform for me to tell the story of my art and so my work may not really fit in. Please have understanding if what i write do not really follow any writing structure. I just hope people are able to enjoy reading :)


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